Finding Twilit Paths
by EstelleDusk
Summary: Even if it's all a game, I'm stuck here for the rest of my life, no matter how long or short that time may be, so I better make the most of it, right? "Okay, I've decided. My name is Jirou." /Rated for minor language HIATUS
1. Over the hills and through the portals

**AN:/The long awaited sequel to Time In A Game (you just lost by the way), Finding Twilit Paths! If you're wondering about the name, well, it isn't just Althea's PoV this time. It's Riku's and Ienzo's too. With tidbits of the others like Myde, Sora, Princess Leia- I mean Lea. Anywho! There will be two arcs to this story. The Chain of Memories Arc and the 358/2 Days Arc (although they may blur at random times for continuity's sake). Not much else to say except, Happy Anniversary to me and my beloved and Happy Halloween/Samhain to everybody else!  
**

Warning, beginning is not very Kingdom Hearts like. After the CoM arc, whenever the PoV is generally from Althea's, it will be in worlds you'd least expect. Also, "the tomb" is not in the original game. It's a modification for TES III that I've always found very handy.

**Disclaimer: **If you can recognize it prior to reading my stories, I don't own it. If you recognize it only because you have read my stories, there is still a chance I don't own it but I have also asked permission from the proper owners, unless it's an obvious shout-out to an author that doesn't even know I exist.

Finding Twilit Paths, Chapter 1: Over the hills and through the portals

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One human teen walks along a dirt path towards a town called Seyda Neen. At the next fork, she takes the right path. Her hair is messy, brown, and severely needs a haircut to get rid of all those split ends. Her eyes are honeyed and covered with square, thick glasses, upon deciding this was the world she wanted to live in, she changed her style of clothes and looked for a home.

She found a graveyard nearby the town of Seyda Neen and out of curiosity explored it. There was a tomb in that graveyard, and once she entered, she found it wasn't as dark as one would think. it actually looked like someone lived there and as she searched – and found dead bodies that she asked her three companions to drag out – a story unfolded laid bare in the blood, ashes, and books around the tomb. A vampire had lived there. A simple vampire that took lovers instead of victims. A kind hearted vampire that was attacked for no other reason than being a vampire that was once the Neverine; some sort of savior that lived long past his time. He was an "Imperial" according to his ID papers on the wall. An immigrant that was once a prisoner in Cyrodill. Born under the the star sign the Tower and playing the part of a healer as he wandered Vvardenfell. Then one day, he became a vampire. She had discovered all this from looking around and finding no other company but journals and the dead. She decided that once it was cleaned up, the tomb would make a great home and sent her companions to fetch her bags, promising to make them chocolate cake and sea salt ice cream. As soon as they were gone, a dead woman on the ground jumped up and attacked the teen. The woman had been the last person the Imperial vampire bit and she had been given the gift of vampirism moments before the foolish adventurer entered her home and killed her beloved. The two females wrestled for a bit, the woman quickly being pinned.

"Please! Just a little, I'm starving and I can't leave the tomb. I'm so weak, I haven't fed at all since I rose." The vampire begs, trying to bite the human teen.

"How long ago was that?" The teenager questions. With her common everyday knowledge of vampires, she knew it was bad for a newborn vampire to have not fed at all.

"Two weeks..."

"Allow my companions and I to live here and we'll nurse you back to health and help you find the vampire clan you belong to."

"Yes! Please, some blood?"

Hours later of potion and ether ingestion for one and blood consumption from the wrist for another, they finally introduce themselves. The teen, dresses in a knee-length black skirt, black biker shorts, boots she found on a corpse and washed out heavily, a black and red trimmed long-sleeved Victorian blouse with a purple corset with thin straps on the shoulders and a bag presently holding her old clothes and gloves, introduces herself as Althea Gloxinia. The vampire woman, clad in full white chitin armor hidden only by a blue extravagant shirt and skirt, the helmet to her armor lies next to her, called herself Elspeth Dren, a type of blue-grey skinned dark elf called Dunmer, a native from a very wealthy family whose business is slaves.

It's been almost a month since then and Elspeth has recovered enough to go to Seyda Neen every night and steal some sips from the sleeping villagers. So Althea, as soon as she sees the town, detours right and enters the graveyard and tomb she's beginning to call home as dusk settles across the town. In the main entrance, she sees only a pair of sleeping Shadows on a bed in the corner. She continues on into the storage rooms and checks the lab, finding no one in either section, therefore leaving the throne room as the only place the missing Wyvern and vampire must be. Upon entering the sad excuse for a throne room, she hears two people conversing.

"I'll ask again, are you the summoned beast of a necromancer and is Althea a necromancer?"

"And I'll say this again, we're not and she's not."

"But her blood had something dark in it, she must be a necromancer. And we Dunmer hate necromancers"

"She's been living in a dark environment of course the aura would have an effect. And you're a necrophiliac, that's pretty close to necromancer, so shouldn't you hate yourself?"

"The Neverine was not dead, he caught the Porphyric Hemophilia!" Elspeth counters.

"Which means he was bit by a vampire and brought to near death and then given vampire blood to drink. Everyone knows that." The smart-aleck Ienzo retorts.

"Okay, before it gets fierce, I'm interrupting you two. I found in Balmora the names of the places where the three great vampire clans nest, now we just have to map the exact locations and help you find them." Althea says, literally going between the draconic Heartless and dark elf while.

"Don't bother, just let me have the names and I'll search. I can walk." The Dunmer holds out her hands for the list.

"Ever been to Red Mountain?" Althea asks casually.

Elspeth's already ghastly face suddenly has white eyes with tiny red pinpricks to go along with it. She and most natives of Vvardenfell are terrified of the Red Mountain.

"You're such a wuss, you've never been traveling with your Neverine? I've seen his journals. He searched for each HQ and went to Red Mountain many times, turning up nothing but locations of various ruins all around there. Even I've been there and I'm not a native to Vvardenfell at all."

"My Neverine was protecting me! You're some sort of witch, that's why you have no fear of traveling. Because the monsters listen to you!" Says the hysterical vampire elf.

"A chrono-spatialmancer. Which reminds me, mind if I try out a spell on you?" _It's called Silencio. _Althea calmly corrects her.

"No! I should've found out you were a witch before I let you stay here. Now I'll never be able to get you out. That's why I need to join up with my clan." Elspeth whines.

"Princess, where have you been? You've been gone for two days." Ienzo interrupts.

"Really? Felt longer, then again, I did cast a Mega-Haste spell on me and that guy overseeing the Corprusiam. He refused to help me so I spent a while convincing him via that spell. I had to heal that obese dwarf of his, I think he called himself the last Dwemer."

"The Corprusiam? Why would you go there? What if you caught Corprus and brought it back here?"

"I'd just do what I did for the Dwemer, turn back time on my body until I reach the point in time precisely before I caught the disease. Besides, I had the head honcho and his wives slash female clones of himself check me out before I left" Althea mentally shudders at the thought of a man immortal enough and bored enough to clone himself, make those clones female, and marry each of them.

The vampire and teenager argue about disease prevention when a pop of light is seen and heard. Out of the light appears a vicious looking cage of green and purple spotted navy blue spiders with a note addressed to Althea. The cage falls into her hands and the trio blink in confusion. Althea balances the cage in one hand and reads the note in the other.

_Dear Althea, the newest member to the prestigious magical ranks, _

_unfortunately you'll remain at the bottom unless you make yourself known to your chosen world and gain a reputation high enough to be known in other worlds. Or you could stay in the shadows like you've been doing since you entered this universe. I'll let you in on a little secret since I'm sure you're wondering how I knew your little secret ;) _

_I am Jezzebel Landings, (make no comment on my name or I'll hex you) youngest Elder of Darkness and one of two Grey bishops, the other is Yen Sid of the Elders of Light. Each elder, whether of Light or Darkness is also a bishop of either White, Black, or Grey. Therefore, all three of us knew where you were from the moment we met you and therefore knew you were a Grey Princess. Only Fate could tell us if you will be the Grey Queen, and I don't mean those three little old ladies working for Hades. ;P And your little friend, once he learns to accept his dark powers as well as light powers, he will be the Grey King. And just between you and me, Yubaba even with all of her multifold years still doesn't believe the Grey female royal comes from another universe. _

_Now enough of secrets and onto your present. You see these spiders? They're special spiders, they are completely tame, docile, and self-sufficient when let out of their cage. But that's not what's special about them since most spiders are like that, hehe! All of them love clothes, specifically, they love making clothes. They've been bred and trained to use their multi-colored silk to make and mend clothes. And I really do mean make, give them enough time and privacy and they could make an entire outfit so long as you provide buttons, zippers, clasps, clips, and a general blueprint. They can even make your clothes bigger or smaller. My researchers and scientists ;) have yet to figure out how they do that since it's never been physically observed, but we think they have some magic of their own. _

_Now one more thing before I end this letter. The man that possessed Riku had been defeated about two weeks ago. You better move quickly if you plan on saving him from himself and any others. The gates to Oblivion are scheduled to close on Thursday at 7pm this week and the next time they open will be when either Sora or the Organization members there are defeated._

Althea lowers the note and asks Ienzo when Thursday is. Two days he says. She puts the cage of spiders on the floor and teleports to the entrance room to wake up Myde. "Myde! I need you awake! You need to go find Castle Oblivion before Thursday! I happen to know both Leia's and Ienzo's nobodies are at the castle but we don't know what will happen if they get too close so I can't send them. I'll make you cookies, you know you like cookies." She picks up the shadow and shakes him awake. He yawns and nods sleepily, quickly dozing off again. She sighs and walks out of the tomb, jumping the graveyard fence and sliding on wet mud into the small body of water separating them from the town. Myde immediately wakes up and leaps out of her arms for a quick swim in his element.

**Got it ally! Can I have oatmeal cookies? And how am I supposed to find the castle?**

"Do you know how Sora smells? He should be heading towards Castle Oblivion if he isn't there already. Ansem the Wise should also be around there too, but he won't look or smell entirely like himself. And Goofy and Donald Duck and Riku should be there. Alternatively, you can sniff out Ienzo and Leia's scents as long as they don't lead you back here."

Myde melts into the water, becoming just another shadow. Althea walk back inside the tomb, muttering cleaning spells on her clothes and most especially her boots. Elspeth, Ienzo, and Lea are waiting for her in the entrance with the spider cage. She takes the cage and talks to the spiders.

"I'm Althea Gloxinia, the witch you were sent to. I'm going to let you go now, but please try not to leave the tomb. I don't want to lose you little guys."

She opens the tiny door and they scramble out and all over her. Their furry little legs tickle any spot of skin they walk over. "_Hehehe_, go walk all over Ienzo why don't you? I'm ticklish."

- The night before, at a random crossroads made of dirt in a grassy meadow -

"Who are you?" A tan boy with spiky brown hair demands of the black cloaked figure at the grassy crossroads.

"Who am I indeed? To seek is to find. To find is to lose. All of the answers you seek are down this road Sora." Answers the figure.

"How do you know my name?"

"All questions will be answered when you find what you seek. But you may lose something important along the way."

"Can you start making sense? You're reminding me of that other wacko." Sora distinctly remembers one strange man in a brown cloak that he met the day his homeworld was destroyed...temporarily of course.

"Do you seek your dear friend Riku?"

"You know where he is? Tell me!" The boy conveniently forgets he's also looking for some mouse king.

"To seek is to find. To find is to lose..." The figure disappears mysteriously, leaving the young teenager to his crazy, whirled around thoughts of how does he always end up meeting and attracting all of the wack jobs in the multiverse. He also goes straight back to his friends sleeping in the grass somewhere and wakes them up, saying they needed to follow the strange man before they lost him.

- Thursday -

Myde crawls all over the Realm of Darkness. He's already tried sniffing out Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, and Ansem in the Realm of Light, and he's almost done with the Realm of Darkness. He's confused, where could this Castle Oblivion be? Suddenly, he catches Riku's scent and follows it over the hills and through the woods— uhh, I mean through a mysterious and convenient portal leading to a strangely colored and haphazard castle on a small plot of solid Darkness surrounded by a cloudy fog of swirling Darkness. Without even trying to find a way into the castle, Myde rushes back to his friends to tell them the good news.

- Thursday, 6pm, an empty void -

Another teenager, this one being younger than the first and older than the second, sleeps in a void. Floats in this void horizontally. His thoughts are rabid, fiercely overwhelming him. Hence his sleep. It's the only way he is able to make the voices in his head go away for while. But in his sleep, he has his nightmares to keep him company instead.

A nightmare of when he tried to murder his best friend.

A nightmare of sacrificing a girl like a sister to him for what a vile witch claimed was the greater good.

A nightmare of poorly thanking his beloved aunt by throwing her to the dogs to tear apart.

A nightmare of betraying the only friend he really had while working for an evil witch.

The voices tell him he destroyed the world and this is his punishment.

They say he doesn't deserve the Light and should continue to sleep in the Darkness.

Suddenly, there's a new voice.

"Will you sleep in eternity to forget your friends?"

"Go away..." Riku mumbles.

"Sleep in the comforting blanket of Darkness? To forget every bad thing you did under Maleficent?"

Riku groans and turns over.

"Are you sleeping to forget Sora, Kairi, and Althea?"

"Shut up..."

"Will you break your promise to your friends, just so you won't hurt anymore? Leave them behind and sleep in eternal Darkness. Go ahead, they won't hold it against you."

Riku's eyes jolt open at that sentence and he realizes what the new voice has been saying. "What?" He stands up...in a sense since there's no floor for his feet.

"It's okay, they won't look down on you, you can sleep here for as long as you want. You'll only be forgotten."

"Yeah right, I'm not leaving them behind again. So tell me, Voice, how do I get out of here?"

"Are you sure you want to leave this warm place?"

"Tell me!"

A blue glowing orb flashes into existence and circles Riku. "Take the orb if you want to leave. But you really should stay and sleep, it's better here. Safer."

"No thanks, I've got a few promises to keep." Riku tries to grab the orb but it turns into a card in his grasp. The empty void fades away and suddenly he's in Hollow Bastion. "What the hell is going on?" He asks.

- Thursday, 6:30pm, outside Castle Oblivion -

"Great job Myde! You found it just in time. Your cookies are waiting back home, you better hurry, the pyromaniac may have woken up by now—"

**What? No, he'll steal my cookies! **Myde interrupts, quickly leaving after he's said his part. Ienzo and Althea share a look and shrug their shoulders, or wings in Ienzo's case.

**Shall we?** Ienzo asks before leading the way into the castle. Luckily, Sora and company had already gone through the first door within the castle, so Althea and Ienzo weren't seen. Unluckily, it turns out the producers of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories weren't able to fit every doorway into the game. Already our heroes have to make a choice. Do they go through the huge elaborate door, or one of the two smaller ones off to the side?

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	2. The Chances of Being Wrong are

**AN:/** I know what you all are thinking. I have very important reasons for why it's been taking me so long. I've been doing research about the game. And since I don't have every game, I looked up cutscenes and transcripts and anything else I could think of that might help me write this story. Kingdom Hearts 1 was my strong point, but I need to make sure I have a very good sense of the game to write the in-between story that uses both Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days. And I haven't even beaten Re:CoM or 358/2 Days yet. Then I realized that some things I took a wild guess on in the first story actually had a lot of evidence to back them up in BbS. (Aqua being a hopeless romantic that knew about the Paopu fruit. Riku knowing for sure about the "outside world.") So I had to do my research for that game too to find out if I could think of any new ideas and to see if my ideas were canon. I got some ideas, and a few were confirmed. And I accidentally got side-tracked by the next story in this series.

Honestly, I didn't realize I was writing a sequel to the sequel of this specific story you guys are reading, until I saw instances of a mysterious figure that needed to not be so mysterious. . I fail, I know. I started writing the sequel to a sequel to a sequel that wasn't even past it's first chapter yet. Feel free to throw stuff at me. Oh! And, most of the CoM arc will not make sense if I have any say in this story-writing! *has a determined face until she hears a door open and close* Uhm, I need to go hide before my Muse ties me up and steals the story again. Ciao!

Finding Twilit Paths, chapter 2: The chances of being wrong are...

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- The exact same time Althea and Ienzo enter Castle Oblivion, Thursday night, Basement level 1, common room, Castle Oblivion -

Familiar scents tickle Zexion's nose as he sleeps in one of the Common Rooms of Castle Oblivion. Familiar, yet unknown scents. He slowly wakes up, thinking the Superior is in the building. Then he realizes the scent is different. It has that powerful scent of Darkness, but beneath it is the distinct scent of Light and cinnamon and cedar leaves. A second scent nearby reminds him of Ansem of Wise but it's cloaked in Darkness. Then there's the scent utterly drenched in Light and warm coconut cookies and daffodils. Another scent is full of arrogant ginger, presumptuous snapdragons, and marigolds with magic thrown in. A fifth smells of overt protection and chrysanthemum. The sixth new-ish scent is one of jasmine and hibiscus with mostly equal parts of Light and Darkness. A curious feat to behold. And the last scent is what puzzles Zexion the most. It's impossible for someone to have the same natural smell as anyone else he had always thought. But for some reason, the person closest to the Jasmine/Hibiscus scent has Zexion's own unique smell signature. The awareness fully wakes him and he starts to divine the locations of the seven new arrivals in Castle Oblivion so that he could scry for them using the crystal ball in the center of the room.

- A few minutes later, entrance hall, Castle Oblivion, Thursday night -

"So...wanna take a bet on which door leads to the basement?" Althea says as she and Ienzo stare at the three doors in the entrance hall.

**Just pick a door and open it, Princess. I don't see what you're fussing about.** Ienzo rolls his Wyvern eyes at her indecisiveness. He rather finds her being silly. He can sense where everyone in the castle is easily- a plus of being a Heartless- so he figures that if she doesn't want to run into anyone in particular, she should just clear it with him. Then again, he thinks, she's asking for the basement door, so that probably means she knows where she needs to be and just doesn't know how to get there.

"Well I don't want to risk running into Sora just yet, especially in this place." _Namin_é_ might mess with my memories under Marluxia's orders if I run into Sora and get found out. Can't risk that, no, not at all._ She twitches her nose in slight frustration and searches her pockets.

**What are you doing? And Sora's through that big door. I can't exactly sense Donald or Goofy though, it's weird. Like their auras are being suppressed indefinitely...nevermind, I just sensed Donald-nevermind again, he disappeared.** Ienzo says in a strange tone, trying to make sense of what's going on past the large and ornate door. He keeps sensing Donald and Goofy auras and scents flickering in the most curious manner. But theirs are the only scents and auras he can sense through that door. A few floors higher up are three sleeping presences, one of which is identical to Lea's but impossible since Lea didn't come with them and should have been pigging out on Myde's cookies and the surprise cake Althea made to belatedly celebrate her birthday. There's also a more demure presence near those three, one that was awake. Many floors beneath Althea and Ienzo is where Riku is doing whatever he came here to do. Another signature, one very similar to his adopted father's is nearby Riku. Halfway between there and here is where he senses two more signatures being utterly calm and probably being completely unaware of what's going on in the castle since they too seem to be sleeping. The first basement floor is where the last scent resides. It's exactly like Ienzo's own signature and is quickly moving around the floor beneath him.

"I'm looking for a coin, genius. Luck is a good way of solving problems where I come from. Teenagers and children alike would usually resort to some sort of luck-based game to settle their scores." She comes up with nothing coin-like, but she does find the glass top to an old elixir bottle that she forgot to throw out or smelt down. And a black permanent marker. She draws a scribble on one side of the cap. "This'll do, heads is the scribble. If you call right, we take the right door. That okay with you?" The Heartless nods in response to her question but his attention is on the person beneath them quickly moving to a general area beneath one of the two small doors, the one on the left to be precise. Althea tosses the glass cap in the air. "Call it!"

**Heads.**

- Friday, early morning, basement level 5, Castle Oblivion, common room -

A pale and slightly sickly man with long, bland, blonde hair sits at a table not too far from his tall, bulky, short redheaded silent friend who sits on the couch. The two of them are in one of the two basement common rooms of Castle Oblivion. The blonde, Vexen, is reading the latest issue of Scientist's Digest and scrawling down notes in the margins and on a separate notebook. The muscle-man on the other hand was fiddling with a puzzle. He liked doing that. Its his favorite hobby next to searching for his Heart. His name is Lexaeus.

Both of these people are actually Nobodies, beings without Hearts. They are created when a really strong person loses his or her Heart to the Heartless. There are two classes of Heartless, the Purebloods and the Emblems, although the class names are actually quite misinforming. The Purebloods are born from Darkness itself and usually just want to raise their ranks because they're so lonely. The Emblems usually don't care about making more Heartless, usually they just want to get to Kingdom Hearts. But the only way for a Heartless to go to Kingdom Hearts, is for their bodies of Darkness to be dispersed by a weapon of Light, usually a Keyblade. Depending on how much Darkness the Heartless-to-be has in his or her Heart before they "die," a new Heartless may be able to choose his or her bodily form. Like Ienzo, Xehanort, and Riku. Otherwise the new Heartless will more than likely take the form of the Heartless that stole his or her Heart.

"Narrator, do you mind? I can't concentrate when you're going on about our universe. Please just direct." Lexaeus says without looking away from his puzzle.

Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes...

Zexion portals in and stands between the table and couch. He waits a moment, his arms folded behind his back, only speaking when he believes it clear that no one else will. "Hello to you too, Vexen, Lexaeus. Yes, I slept well, thank you for asking. We do seem to have a bit of a problem though." That catches his fellow members' attention. "As you know, Sora and company arrived last evening and Numbers VIII, XII, and XI have been playing with them. But late last night or early this morning depending on the way you view it, I sensed two new scents. One of them was Maleficent."

"That's preposterous! That old hag is dead." Vexen exclaims, putting his magazine down. Lexaeus just slows down his fiddling with the puzzle to pay more attention to Zexion.

"Yes, yes, our other visitor took care of that. It was a scent quite similar to our Superior's, and at first I thought it was he."

"What changed your mind? Was it actually quite different?" Vexen questions before getting up to look at the chore chart.

"Yes and no. The fact that he didn't come to see me for allowing Maleficent to find a way inside told me the scent wasn't the Superior's."

"So who is it?" Vexen asks while Lexaeus finally solves his latest puzzle and puts it down before reaching into a box by his feet for a new one.

"I don't know yet. I'll keep you updated, but until then, we shouldn't forget our chores. Vexen, if you would be so kind, what are Lexaeus' and my chores for the day?" Zexion changes the topic.

Vexen grumbles under the breathe how at least Zexion should know his chores, he always gets the same ones since he rigged the dial. "You have Forgetting and Patrolling, Number 6. Number 5 is dealing with cooking, cleaning, and communication today."

"Excellent, and how is the Replica Project coming along?"

"No. _i _was in excellent condition last I checked. My Replicas of myself are still failures for some reason but I recently found a magic-imbued pendant with traces of someone's DNA. I'll use that for my next experiment. Also I want you to see if you can detect who the pendant belonged too." Vexen says pulling out a plastic bag with a necklace in it. It has a short thin silver chain with many enchantments to keep it clean and indestructible. The pendant is of a silver Chinese Lung dragon curled around a pearlescent orb, also with many enchantments to keep it clean and indestructible.

Zexion takes the bag and opens it, letting his bloodhound senses detect the owner. "It belongs to the anomaly. You might want to use the necklace itself, the scent is so heavy on it that I wouldn't be surprised if he left part of his Heart in it. And as I've read over your previous reports, the only difference I can see between your failings and successes is that your failings were based on someone with no Heart and whose Heartless is possibly dead."

- Basement 12, Castle Oblivion, an hour later -

Riku wakes to the Disembodied Voice telling him he's being lazy. Riku mutters angrily to himself and then sighs and looks around the room. He managed to find the bedroom he and Althea shared while staying in Hollow Bastion, but he didn't find Althea. _Didn't he say I'd meet people from my memories?_ Riku thinks, looking at the bureau that his roommate always kept her healing augments in. He at least expected to see Althea, but he's seen no one but the Heartless and Maleficent so far. And he's not even sure they're real Heartless. They don't have that stench of Darkness he thought they would.

Riku doesn't know when he got his new-found ability of scenting Darkness, but he figures it has something to do with Althea or Amani, the jinnīyah they shared for a time until both of those girls got trapped in Hollow Bastion. He also expects one or both of them to knock him over the head and call him an idiot when he sees them again. Then again, he expects Sora and Kairi to do the same.

Riku shakes his head to clear his thoughts and goes over to the bureau and searches it for any items he might be able to use, pocketing them as he finds them. For some reason, he felt so much weaker that he should have been. A Shadow almost killed him before he found his old bedroom. Something like that hadn't happened in months. And there's the other reason why Riku doesn't think they're actual Heartless. Even though he technically died, the Heartless should have still listened to him and recognized who he was, but they didn't so he ran away from every Defender and tried to deal with the Shadows, Wizards, and Tornado Steps quickly. He also ran from the Wyverns, but not because he couldn't defeat them, but because he would be uneasily reminded of Sentinel. A kind of pet Heartless that hardly ever left him alone when he first arrived at the real Hollow Bastion.

Then Riku is on his way and out the door, being immediately surrounded by 5 Shadows. Both parties stare for a moment. Then the Heartless try jumping him and Riku rolls underneath them all. Then he turns around and immediately slices through the Heartless closest to him a few times, moving to the next one when the first has turned to Darkness dust and smoke. A third Heartless tries attacking while he's distracted, but Riku throws the second Heartless at the third and slices a few more times. The last two Heartless double-team him and he jumps back at that exact second. They bang each other's head and fall in a pile on the ground, Riku swiftly finishes them off.

_**...You're still lazy, it would be easier if you just stopped fearing the Darkness and embraced it.**_ The Disembodied Voice says at the end of his battle

"Oh, just shut up! I didn't ask you how to handle my crappy life, now did I?" Riku yells angrily into the air and shakes his fist. The Disembodied Voice stays silent for the rest of the day while Riku fights his way through his memory and eventually he heads back to his bedroom.

- Floor 2, Castle Oblivion, same time Riku wakes up, Friday -

Sora glumly stares at his ramen cup, while Donald and Goofy gulp their own food down eagerly. Last night, after leaving Traverse Town on a strange note, a black-cloaked guy wanted to fight them. Then, a new guy dressed in the exact same way but much more skinny and that Axel at first thought was a girl interrupted and said he wanted to fight the trio. The first guy went away and the second introduced himself. His name, he said, was Axel. The trio didn't defeat Axel, they just got humiliated. But that's not even the worst of what happened last night.

Sora finally takes a bite of his cooling soup and looks at his friends. _How can they be so calm knowing that we're forgetting things that were important to us? I almost forgot that I died...or did I almost die? ARGHH! I can't remember! And I can't ask Jiminy, his journal is completely blank. Almost as if he didn't take any notes at all._

"Sora?" Goofy questions cautiously, noticing that Sora's not eating with his usual gusto. Sora shakes his head vigorously and smiles at Goofy, putting aside his somber thoughts in favor of good food and even better friends.

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	3. SilverHaired Bishonen FTW!

**AN:/ **You guys and gals are great. Seriously, you are. Even if you don't review, you at least read my story and press the Refresh button, that means a lot to me. And since my finals and first college semester are almost over, I get the feeling I'll be typing up a few couple thousand words before my winter break is over. ;) And in homage to a new reader that's still reading the first story, I really must say two words a bunch of the internet and forum nerds are gonna hate me for. The Game. XD

Cheshire's Rat(): Aren't you glad I allow anonymous reviews? Arigatou for the cheesecake :3 Glad you like the story.

Finding Twilit Paths, chapter 3: Silver-Haired Bishonen FTW!

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- Basement 11, Castle Oblivion, 7am, Saturday -

Riku drags himself through the doors leading to Basement 11. He woke up this morning to the Disembodied Voice trying to turn him back to Darkness again and he's beginning to think the voice belongs to...

"Sleep well?" The voice says, now not so disembodied. He's a tall and deeply tanned man with long silver hair and amber eyes...amber eyes, wait, that's the color I made Althea's! Shoot! Why didn't I realize this earlier, I could have- uhh, sorry, ignore that. So yes, his eyes are amber and gold with his pupil being just a tiny black dot. He wears no shirt, displaying his chest for all of his fangirls and boys to see, and instead wears black pants, black knee-high boots with silver trim. And a few belts. He has two coats instead of shirts. The first is black leather with red on the inside and trimmed in yellow. It is high-collared and completely unzipped and has black pauldrons attached by two straps. The second jacket is white and also high-collared since he likes showing off those neck muscles in the front. It is buttoned in such way that only his abs are covered. He also has a huge emblem on his chest that's the same as the one the Emblem Heartless have on their bodies. Never forget that nearly everyone in this universe wears gloves or some sort of wristband. His gloves are silvery-white with a grey band around the wrist.

Riku straightens his posture and tries his best not to look dead tired from being chased by Defenders as soon as he left his room. "Well, would you speak of the devil? I was just thinking of you." His hand makes a small side-sweep motion with a mock grin.

"Thinking of how you'll give into the Darkness in order to serve me, again? How kind of you. It saves me the trouble." The man known as Ansem grins evilly

"No, actually, I was trying to think of a reason for why I shouldn't kill you again if I ever saw you." Riku summons his sword, Soul Eater and points it at his opponent. "So far, I've thought of _more_ reasons to kill you."

"Well here I am, take your best shot." Ansem spreads his arms out wide and grins sadistically.

Riku charges at him with a loud yell. Just as his swords swings at Ansem, Ansem holds up his hand and silently calls up a mostly invisible reflect spell. Riku is blown backwards 20 feet away onto his back. "Ack!" _What just happened? He can't have gotten stronger, could he? I have to get away and figure out how to get rid of him._

"Do you see what you could do if only you'd give in to the Darkness, Riku? It's easy to do, and that's the only way you'll ever have a chance of beating me." Ansem slowly walks forward and reaches towards the teen that's trying to back away from him by sliding his butt backwards on the floor. Riku completely forgets that the best way to get away from him would be to stand up and run.

"**You're not getting him!**" A blinking orb of golden light that's about as big as Riku's hand appears before his face, somehow speaking. "**He doesn't need to fall back into Darkness to get rid of you.**" The orb circles around him. "**Riku just needs to believe in himself and the Light.**" The orb sinks into Riku's chest and he gets the distinct feeling he really can do as the voice of King Mickey Mouse said.

Riku nods to himself and stands up with a miniscule determined grin, making sure to have his sword in his hand. _Oosama..._

"Are you ready to play?" Ansem says, unfolding his arms and starting the battle with a simple (not really) Dark Firaga to Riku's feet. Riku jumps forward, over the spell, remembering what he was told about his species being less resistant to magic than normal humans even though his species uses more of it. When his feet touch the ground again he takes a few quick strides before jumping again, this time to slash downwards at Ansem.

His attack barely connects, leaving a tiny bloody cut down part of Ansem's chest. Ansem laughs lowly as Riku hops back to put some distance between them. _I've seen something like that before. He has a shield spell connected to something he's wearing. It's not a very strong spell considering he got cut, but I'll have to put more power behind my attacks just to have them have at their normal power. Geez, why didn't I pay attention more to Ally when she was having me help her study for all of her tests?_

"Well, would you look at how weak you became when you had to remake your body after your last one got destroyed?" Ansem gloats. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I have a shield, but I don't. You're just weak. You're not the type of person to use magic, and yet you did just to make sure you wouldn't die. And you did a poor job of it. You don't have half the strength you used to."

"Shut up!" _He's just lying to get to me, I just need to break that shield. _Riku charges at the smirking Ansem again, slashing at him from his right shoulder to his left side and turning around and kicking the back of his legs. Ansem blocks most of the slash with his gloves but stumbles badly when kicked at those joints.

Ansem grabs Riku's collar and tosses him aside, immediately blasting him with a more powerful Dark Firaga. This time the three orbs of fiery Darkness connect as Riku is trying to catch himself in the air. Riku hisses in pain and quickly tries to put out the fire on his clothes by first rolling on the floor. He remembers from a spar with Althea that a powerful enough Dark Firaga can inflict Poison, Stop, and Silence as well as shoot three fireballs instead of one. He only remembers this tidbit because she nearly strangled him during the rest of that match. Ever since that specific match, Riku kept to just Dark Fire when fighting her. And he's never been so glad to be immune to Time Magick, otherwise, he's sure Ansem would kill him.

Riku stands up after dousing the flames and runs behind a nearby pillar to search his pockets for any item that might cure him. He knows his old roommate kept all sorts of items in the bureau that he pilfered from, he just needs to remember which one he needed. He then pricks his finger on a golden needle. _Ouch! No, that one's for Petrify. Where's the fricken' Antidote and Cure Mute Status thingamajig?_

"Running away? Perhaps we should just end this battle now while you still have your pride. But where's the fun in that." Ansem charges up Dark Firaga again while staring at the pillar Riku hides behind.

"You idiot!" An invisible female voice harshly whispers in front of Riku. "If you weren't already getting your butt kicked, I'd do it for you. Why'd you have to go and lose that necklace I gave you anyway? He's about to fry you. Must I do everything by myself? Hold on." Something grabs a hold of Riku just as Ansem releases his spell and Riku gets a strange pulling sensation and a little disorientation as the invisible girl teleports him to the other side of the room. "Seriously, do you know how lucky you are that I'm not bound by the same rules you are? Don't move." Suddenly a syringe appears from about waist level out of a pocket, Riku assumes, with 5cc of a golden liquid inside of it.

Riku starts to silently protest to no avail. She takes his arm and inserts the needle into the vein in the crook of the arm. Once the liquid is inside his veins along with his blood and the poison, the needle is taken out and broken before being tossed aside. She sends a small fireball at the needle to dispose of it. "Ally, is that you? Wait, I can talk again?" Riku whispers to the hidden figure.

"Shh! I gave you an elixir through your veins because that's the only way to get rid of the poison. I'll need to make you a new Dragon Pendant if you're gonna be fighting people with Dark attacks from now on. I shouldn't be fighting your battles so I'll stand by as your nurse, but I do have a lot of things I need to do while here, so call me only if you really need me." Two things appear before him on the ground, a small black leather drawstring bag and a card. Riku opens the hammerspace-lined bag and sees a bunch of injection needles, Antidotes, Echo Screens and bandages. He looks at the card and sees Althea's face.

He gets the feeling as he attaches the bag to his belt that she's already gone. As he pockets the card, he finds another, this one with King Mickey's face on it. He uses it. "_Oosama!_"

- Vexen's Cloning Laboratory, Basement 10, Castle Oblivion, Monday, noon-

Vexen scribbles on his clipboard while observing the newest clone. It's been three days since the DNA was put into a vat of thick, globular, slightly transparent green non-Newtonian liquid. Vexen at first grumbled about how Ienzo was right, but then he was happy as he noticed his newly reformulated Hyper-Regeneration Potion was working better he intended. The scientist had to transfer the newly created infant after a few hours to the full-sized tube.

Already, the Replica appears to be 3 years old. He has feathery silver hair reaching down his back and floating around in the green goop. His skin is very fair with tiny hints of brown pigment; the type of skin more likely to burn than tan. His eyelashes are long. His eyes are shut and have never once opened. But the most distinguishing thing about the Replica is that in the center of his chest, right where his physical heart is, is the Dragon Pendant that Vexen found floating around the Darkness outside of Castle Oblivion.

The pendant is embedded so much into the child's body that the skin appears to have grown over, around, into, and fespecially rom the metal. The orb in the middle of the pendant is the most visible, but small bits of metal can be seen too. It is the very life-source of the Replica. The chain that was connected to it seems to have become his bones, according to the scans done every hour. _It's really quite remarkable_, Vexen thinks as he scribbles some more. He doesn't know what exactly allowed this Replica to form from such an anomaly, but he'll figure it out. After all, he's a scientist, it's what he does.

Zexion portals into the laboratory. "Hello, Vexen, I see I was right." He walks right up to the tube and de-gloves a hand before putting it on the glass. He focuses a little magic into his hand and scans the contents of the tube in his own way.

"Keep your hands off the glass!" Vexen snaps as the projected magickal energy travels through the gel and reaches the boy. He twitches and curls up in an effort to hide.

"My apologies, I was just checking a theory that was formed after witnessing one of the real Riku's battles." Zexion, satisfied with the results of his impromptu experiment, removes his hand from the glass and puts his glove back on.

"And what, pray tell, was your theory since you just ruined everything! I wasn't going to expose him to magic for another few days! And even then it was going to be in small doses." Vexen writes down the bias that just occurred in the experiment.

"Riku is part fay. My suggestion is that you introduce his Replica to magick and Darkness today or else he may die. Magick is a part of every fairy's life and without any exposure within the first few days, many a fay has died."

"What about the necklace? It has magick weaved into it." Vexen says coolly, putting down his clipboard and going over to a machine that controls what goes into the container the Replica is in. Despite the fact that he sometimes "hates" Zexion, Vexen knows that whenever he opens his mouth, the next words are usually something of crucial importance.

"Yes, but an enchanted item does not do the job like actual magick does. Besides, we don't know what type of magick it even has besides invincibility and detection charms." Zexion says, gazing at the boy strangely with crossed arms

"Detection charms? Why would someone put that on a necklace?" Vexen reaches into a lower cabinet and pulls out a large vial of Darkness. He connects it to the machine and starts the injection process.

"To make sure no one else could use it."

- Basement 1, Castle Oblivion, Zexion's Room, Monday, 9pm -

Althea is sleeping on Zexion's bed when he comes in. He sighs and sends a small Blizzard at her bum. She immediately wakes up and sends a small Fire in his general direction, completely missing him and hitting his dart board. He sighs again and puts out the fire before the smoke alarm goes off and Vexen or Axel are sent to investigate. She glares at Zexion and sits cross-legged on his bed.

"So what was with the wake-up call? They called you polite in my universe, but you're not very polite to me."

"With my counterpart's memories, I know that that was the only way to wake you up without a hassle on my part." He states simply, sitting next to her. She glares some more and grumbles under her breath about a perfectly good dream now forgotten.

"Anywho! Was anyone able to tell? And what do I even call you now? First it was Sentinel, then it was Ienzo, and while here I have to say Zexion, right?" She cheers up a bit.

"I think, once we're done here, I'd like to go by my old name. And no one could tell the difference. I'm still Zexion, the Cloaked Schemer to them all, even though I have my Heart back. And with that, I am even more convinced that you will become the Grey Queen Lady Jezzebel spoke of." The apparent ex-Nobody says.

"I didn't do much, I just remembered what Sora and Kairi did according to my old universe. Heartless-Sora was hugged by a Princess of Heart that knew his true form and he turned back to that. I couldn't do that since I'm not a Princess of Heart and I wasn't even sure if both halves of you had to be in a humanoid form for you to combine back together. Lucky you, it seems both halves of a person just need to be in close proximity and agree that they should become one person again."

"So it seems." Zexion and Althea stare at the smoldered and iced dart board. "Are you sure the Replica needs to exist? I could have nipped the problem in the bud when I visited him today and did as you asked."

"Yes, Repliku causes problems, but he was a major factor that caused Riku to accept his own Darkness. And I want to save him. Back home, I remember watching his death scene over and over again. His story was so sad. I don't think anyone else in this universe has such a short, sad life. I want to at least take away one of those adjectives. I watched your death scene too. As a Somebody, you can't die the way you did anymore. All you have to do is time everything right and you'll be able to get away with everyone else thinking you died. The only Organization members I really don't want to save are Xemnas and Xigbar."

"Why? Is there something you know that I don't?"

"No, I just get this feeling that Xigbar has fallen as far as Xemnas has and that there's no chance of them stopping their evil."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, before I left my old universe, there were rumors about the game that has probably come out by now. I heard Xigbar's Other lost his eye and got that scar and that silver streak in his hair after a fight with this guy named Terra. And that this guy named Xehanort tried everything to tempt Terra into using the Darkness. Remember that guy calling himself Ansem? The one that possessed Riku? His real name is Xehanort."

"So that wasn't my father? Good. Do you know where he is?" Zexion's newly remembered anxiousness shows easily, although his words are steady.

"Well..." Althea looks up and swings her feet off the side of the bed, trying to decide if telling Zexion would drastically change things or not.

"Please," he asks quietly, reminding her of small and quiet child, "tell me, both halves of me have sensed someone in this castle that was similar to my father, but we aren't sure. The presence is so different at the same time. Almost like the similarity and difference between Xemnas and Riku."

"Well, why ask me?" Althea decides it wouldn't hurt anybody to tell him. "You seem to have your answer. He's here, but he's busy trying to make Riku his pawn in his path for vengeance against Xemnas and every other of his apprentices that betrayed him. And that makes his signatures different from what you remember."

"Even me?" He says slowly.

"I don't know. I hope not, you were just a kid and your curiosity got the best of you. A true father would realize that and instead punish the ones that pushed you too far." She shrugs.

"I am still a 'kid' emotionally. Don't forget that even though I can think faster than most occupants of this castle and with more accuracy, I became a Nobody when I wasn't even a decade old. My emotions will still be getting the best of me until I can gain control of them. Being a Nobody with no feelings for the past decade doesn't help. My position is very..._frustrating_, all things considered." He chuckles shyly.

"You don't need to get rid of your childishness. I think it's cute." Althea smiles and laughs a little, punching his arm. "Even though I act sometimes like a mature adult, I'm still just a teenager and I'm childish at times. _Heheh!_"

Zexion rubs his arm and nods with a small smile, then he remembers his family that he left behind. "I miss my sisters, I think you'd get along with Yuffie more than Kairi. When do you think I should risk going to see them?"

"Huh, that's a good question. Wait, Yuffie? You never said Yuffie was your sister!" Althea groans, remembering her first and only meeting with the ninja and knowing that social customs dictate that she'll have to confront her once more. _Bloody cheesecake-swiping granny and darned ninja that can't tell the truth for why she returned empty-handed that night._

"Really? I thought I made it clear that Yuffie preferred to play with Kairi instead of helping Papa and I. She's my blood sister, Kairi is my adoptive sister, Naminé is a sister as well although that's a little more complicated."

"_Tch_, you're telling me." Althea says before falling backwards on his bed and snuggling the blanket, trying to fall asleep again.

"Get out of my bed." Zexion says, annoyed.

"Heck no! It's mine now, you can take the couch." She shoves his arms away as they try to grab and move her.

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If you like it, review. If you don't like it, don't review. If you're lazy, just refresh the page so the hit count goes up signifying, to me, that you liked it.


	4. Lessons and Blackmail and Clothing Oh My

**AN:/** O.O I got KH: BbS and a PSP for Christmas, but I didn't get a memory stick. I got halfway through Terra's game when my niece shut off my game while I was in the restroom. She's 3 years old and a monstrous demon child that everyone claims is exactly the way I was when I was her age. I suddenly feel sorry for my gaming half of the family when I was growing up, but only a little since they'd always tease me and pull pranks that I'd reciprocate. Thanks for the reviews everyone, no, seriously, doomo arigatou gozaimasu minna-san. 度尾もありがとう御座いますみんなさん。Oh, and since I'm not at all good with the writing system of Japan yet, I have no clue of knowing if my computer auto-corrected that for me properly, if anyone reading can correct me, I'd be most grateful.

I've decided you all deserve a little of my own specialty Christmas cake. So here you go, one personal Jack Skellington vanilla and chocolate swirl for every reader!

Finding Twilit Paths, chapter 4: Lessons and Blackmail and Clothing, Oh My!

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- Vexen's Cloning Laboratory, Basement 10, Castle Oblivion, Tuesday, morning -

He watches from half-lidded eyes as someone new enters his room. He pretends to be asleep, it's the only way no one will bother him. The new person doesn't look anything like him and looks around the magician's age. Whereas he and the scientist and the magician all have flat chests, the new person certainly doesn't. And that makes the tiny boy curious enough to peek at him while he walks to his vat. The new person stands right before him and smiles at the little boy.

"Hey," he says, "how are you? I heard about you from a friend of mine and I decided to drop by."

_Friend? I've never heard this word, what's a friend?_ The boy thinks, closing his eyes completely.

"You probably have no clue what a friend is, in fact, according to Zexion, you have yet to open your eyes and you've only heard the voices of him and Vexen until now. Well, I'm Althea, Althea Gloxinia, I'm a teenage girl. Those voices you've heard before were guy voices. One of them is a teenager, like me, he's Zexion. The other is called Vexen. A friend is someone that you work with, that you share self-defining secrets with. At least, that's the easiest definition I can come up with."

_He's a girl? Then I'm using the wrong word. I remember the scientist talking about a girl once to the magician. He said she instead of he every time he referred to her._ He presses his eyes shut tightly, hoping the first girl he ever met will just go away. If she works with the magician or the scientist, then he doesn't care how curious he is of her.

"Anyways, I came here for an actual reason. I want to teach you how to conjure underwear. You see, in our world, it's improper for a girl and a guy to see each other nude unless they are very, very, very close and intimate with each other. Or if the guy is very young, like you. But most 3-year old kids stop showing their fanny to everyone they meet, so I figure that now is as good a time as any to start teaching you magick since you look almost 4 years even though you're 3 and a half days old. Do you know what boxers are?" She says, inwardly thinking about how young he looks compared to how old he really is.

He opens his eyes and looks at her, slowly moving his head from side to side.

"_Aha_! There are those eyes, such a pretty and vibrant color. And I should probably start from the beginning, huh? Okay, I'll show two types of magick in their purest forms and tell you how to summon it to your hands. Then I'll tell you how to give it shape, color, and actual form. Ok? Ok!"

He watches her put her hands together, like a cup, and listens as she explains what she's doing. First, something sparkly and bright and gooey, like the gel in his vat, appears in her hands. She calls it Light. Then the Light steadily darkens and the sparkles disappears. He recognizes this more easily, he saw the scientist attach a container of this stuff to his vat yesterday. The dark stuff was then injected into his vat and the goop absorbed it as his skin absorbed the goop. She calls the dark stuff Darkness.

She says that she can use both Light and Darkness because she practiced really hard. Then she says that she expects that calling the Darkness would come easier to him because he's been injected with it. She also says that he is part fae, or fairy, and that that will make using magick easier on him. She demonstrates how to force magick into a certain form by turning the Darkness in her hand into her namesake, the gloxinia flower. It's a beautiful thing. Dark purple like the Darkness with six wide petals rimmed in white. His mouth drops in surprise at how quickly it changed shape. Then, just as quickly as it became a flower, the flower and Darkness vanish. His disbelieving eyes move quickly between her hands and her face and she can't help but laugh and tell him to try to do the same.

He furrows his eyebrows and moves his hands from the position of tightly wrapped around his legs to in front of him so that she could see. He tries hard to bring the magick, the Darkness, into his cupped hands and it works after a while. He grins widely and so does she. Then he tries to make the flower she did. That takes twice the time it took him to summon the magick and she nods approvingly. Then she tells him that now he needs to learn to banish what he creates with magick and teaches him. He succeeds at that far more easily.

Then she talks about boxers again, whatever those are. She creates a pair of simple black short pants with small red heart-like images and shows him how they stretch a little here and there. Then she shows him how to put them on and tells him that he should make a pair so that he won't be completely nude anymore. He tries a few times, but there's always something wrong with them. He can't get the stretch she demonstrated boxers having until nearly an hour later. Then he puts them on and grins proudly. She laughs, nods, and claps at his achievement. After all, he's just a kid, he needs encouragement.

"Congrats, little one. You have exceeded my expectations and I bow in your honor." She mock bows. "But I'm sure all of this playing has made you tired. I promise I'll come back everyday, twice a day if I can manage. But I can only come so long as you don't tell a single person, Heartless, or Nobody that I'm here. You can't even think of me, alright? And I have a message for you to pass onto Naminé, a memory witch."

He nods slowly in confusion. _Why can't I tell anybody about her? And how am I supposed to give someone I've never met a message from you when I can't tell anybody about you?_

"Don't worry, you won't actually have to speak with her. She can control memories of people that are in one way or another connected to this boy named Sora. You are connected to this boy. And I know that some bad people in this castle are going to drag you to Naminé when you're older and order her, force her, to change your memories. And she'll see my message for her when she sifts through your memories. I won't be able to do anything to stop them, unfortunately. But I can ensure that you'll be safe. Naminé, this boy is under my protection, talk with Zexion when you get this message. When you do your work, do your best to make sure his memories of me remain as they are and I promise you will have sanctuary with me when you're done working with memories."

The replica nods again and she waves as she disappears from his sight. He's sad to see her go. He tries to remember what she called herself as the scientist—no, Vexen, she said— walks in grumbling about a bad night's sleep whilst holding a clipboard that he immediately drops upon seeing him.

"Z-Z-Zexion! Get over here!" The old man with long blond hair and sickly skin screeches as loud as he can. A big circle made out of the Darkness that the replica is learning to quickly recognize appears not too far from Vexen. Out of the Darkness steps the "teenager" magician the girl said was called Zexion.

"Good morning, Number IV, is there a problem?" He asks calmly as he stifles a yawn.

"Look! He's opened his eyes and someone gave him boxers with little Heartless Emblems all over them! That means someone opened the case too soon, find out who it was now so I can report him to the Superior immediately and get him turned into a Dusk!" Vexen throws a tantrum about the replica's vat and the replica wonders if it was a bad idea put on the "boxers." He also wonders what a "Dusk" is as he continues to try and remember the girl's name. Something about a flower.

Zexion, still being half-asleep, surprisingly does as the old man says and steps closer to the replica's vat to better tell who was there. He takes two sniffs and his eyes widen, silently wondering how he's supposed to explain away someone being here that's not supposed to be here. "Althea." He murmurs quietly, just loud enough for the replica to hear but much too low for the man well into his 40s. The replica grins at the name, realizing Zexion was her friend. He makes the flower she first taught him to silently let Zexion know he's right. Vexen gasps, dumbstruck, as his beloved replica project #59 holds out his hands and conjures something right from thin air. Zexion allows himself a small grin as he realizes she planned for this. "I believe we've just found out who put the boxers on him, Number IV. His fae nature allowed him to conjure a pair. And his original Heart Piece must have had a few memories attached to it. Now if that's all, I will go back to bed. Good day."

- Riku, Tuesday evening-

Riku stretches his muscles before settling down for the night. He gazes at the leather bag Althea gave him and decides to rummage through it. He pulls the bag close and opens it, immediately seeing syringes and curatives. He reaches down into the bottom of the bag, wondering where the new curatives are coming from. For some reason, as soon as he uses something in the bag, it's immediately replaced. His hand doesn't reach the bottom of the bag and he quickly realizes what bag this is.

"Awesome! This is her infinite space bag! I wonder what else she keeps in here..." He promptly turns the bag upside down and shakes it. A few sleeping bags fall out. More curatives and first aid equipment. Canned food and recyclable utensils. Books on random subjects. A collapsible top hat. A couple decks of cards. Scrying instruments. Those complicated looking instruments she used for potions including a simple mortar and pestle and a cauldron. Potion ingredients of any nature. The clothes he last saw her wearing before he locked her up while being possessed by Ansem. Her gloves. His black cloak that he would disguise himself with back when he worked for Maleficent. A pair of scissors. A few notebooks. Her magically expanded private journal. A couple pens. Specialized jewelry for protection. A bunch of pliers and different spools of wires. Materials for creating jewelry and accessories. Different brightly colored orbs that easily fit in the hand. And a few stuffed animals, including the one she used during her MAT, one that looks like a Shadow Heartless, and a guy with blue spiky hair, gold rimmed sunglasses, and a dual-pronged cape. And a few lanterns. And an ancient Polaroid camera that she magically enhanced to never run out of film. And is that a set of lockpicks?

First, he dumps her old clothing and the top hat back in the bag. Then her cards and crystal ball and black-backed mirror and potion equipment. He reads the titles of a few of her books (Advanced Potions: The Creature Edition, Make Your Own Rainbow and Other Weather Conditions, Playing Violin for Dummies, How to Play Strip Tarot and Not Lose, The Island of the Blue Dolphins, Sirena, Basic Spanish, Basic Japanese, Basic Finnish, Ye Olde Butchered English: You're Doing It Wrong, The Writer's Handbook, Different Styles of Wire Jewelry, Advanced Enchanting, Ancient Customs of Medieval Europe, So You've Accidentally Become A Vampire, A Study of Vampirism) and then shoves them back in the black leather bag. Then he carefully wraps anything sharp in his old black cloak and puts that back in the bag. Eventually, everything but a sleeping bag, a can of black beans, her journal, and the Heartless plushie are back inside Althea's bag.

While Riku carefully heats the can of beans, he argues with himself over reading the journal or not. Last time he did, he saw how tempted she was to throw him to the sharks. But she wasn't here now as far as he could tell. Then again, she could appear at any time and he wouldn't know it if he was too busy he's really curious about his somewhat secretive ally. He shakes his head and thinks other thoughts while he eats his beans. Like how she's crazily prepared for pretty much anything. And how he could pull a prank on her using her own materials. And wondering why she has those vampire books.

Slowly, Riku thinks himself to sleep on top of the remaining sleeping bag. He snuggles the Shadow Heartless plushie and mumbles about crazy witches and idiot friends and roasted duck sandwiches. A short while later, a tiny Portal of Darkness opens up near him. A pale hand reaches through and grabs the journal he neglected to put away. The hand disappears for a moment before reaching through again, this time with it's twin and part of the person's head. She reaches for the slightly farther away bag and searches through it for her camera. When she finds it, she aims it at Riku and snaps a picture while giggling. "This is so going in my journal." She says while grabbing the picture and closing the portal behind her hands.

- Althea's Secret Homebase on Vvardenfell in the Graveyard of Seyda Neen, Friday afternoon -

**Got any 3s?** Lea asks soberly with 12 cards in hand.

**Go fish. Now give me that Ace!** Myde exclaims in joy as he finishes their game since Lea just gave him the pair of the last card in his hand.

Lea glares at his cards and the deck as Myde counts his pairs. He slams down his cards, not worrying about mixing them in with his pairs. **You bloody cheat! There's no way you could beat me at this game 60 freaking times in a damned row!**

Myde cowers in his chair. An angry Lea is a dangerous Lea. The judge, Elspeth the vampire, intervenes. Thankfully. "I was watching his hand the whole time, he didn't cheat. He just kept on drawing the cards you _just_ asked him for. Besides, your Mistress made sure to spell these cards so that no one could cheat using them. And watch your language."

**Y-Y-Yeah, she wanted to make sure that that Luxord guy she grumbled about would never be able to cheat on her watch.** Myde gains a little courage and speaks up. But then Princess Leia growls and glares at him and he cowers once more before finally running away. **Oh man, why can't Ally be here? She'd be able to calm Lea down.** He decides to check on the spiders Althea got as a gift. He recently asked them if they'd be willing to make him a new outfit for when he gets his original form back and he wanted to see if they were working on it. The cowardly Shadow knocks on the closet door in the "tomb" and asks, "Hey, uhh, can I come in, Lea's trying to kill me again?"

There's a slight creaking noise as the door opens a few inches, Myde takes that as an okay and closes the door behind him, once again admiring what the spiders have done with the closet space. They set up a Rube Goldberg mechanism for the door and made a spider style bar and hotel in the highest point of the room. Directly in front of him is where they work on clothes. Althea had unearthed up two mannequins (one with the torso, hands, arms and head and one with the waist, feet and legs) before she left and left instructions for an outfit for Riku. On the first mannequin right now is simply a black zippered sleeveless muscle shirt. **Hey, that's coming along great! Who's it for?**

All of the spiders make a web with the person's name. When they're done, the web says "Riku." Myde spies a pair a sneakers in the corner and he points to them. The spiders change the name on the web to "Ienzo." He woefully asks if they have anything for him. They pull out a pair of sea green wristbands and he whoops in happiness. Then he looks around the closet and notices that there's still plenty of room. **I'll be right back! Thanks for wristbands.**

Myde disappears for the rest of the day, searching high and low or every nearby world for a set of shelves or cubby holes. Like the ones he used to see in elementary schools and art rooms. He finds one that will fit in the closet back in Althea's secret base and he convinces some fellow Heartless to help him carry it back. Myde presents the cubbyhole shelves to the spiders and starts labeling each cubbyhole with the name of someone in their group. Then he puts the wristbands in his cubbyhole and the sneakers in Ienzo's.** Tada! Won't this make things easier for you guys?** The spiders first spin two new words, "thank you," and then they jump on the tiny Heartless and walk all over him, knowing that their hairy legs make it ticklish. **Hey, hey, stop that! You're welcome.

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**And now for something completely different. Your mother was hamster and your father smelled of elderberries! ...Sorry, I'm in a Monty Python mood. Read and maybe review! I'm happy with just a page refreshed a couple times.**


	5. Five Down, Seven More to Go!

**AN:/ Okay, so I know it's been a while since I updated. I blame college, I have class from 10 to 8 practically everyday. And whenever I got an idea for this story, someone would come up behind me and close the lid of my computer saying I spent too much time doing nothing. o.O But now we have the chapter and it's nearly 4k words long. So have fun reading, this chapter focuses on Althea.**

Finding Twilit Paths, chapter 5: Five Down, Seven More to Go!

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- Zexion's Room, Ninth Day after Althea's arrival -

"Why is this taking so long? When I played Chain of Memories, sure, it seemed like it took a little while for Sora to get through the Castle. But this is ridiculous! It's been a week and two days since I got here, a week and three days for Sora, and he's spent two days on every blasted floor! He's only in the fifth world! And it's Agrabah! Not even Halloweentown, but Agrabah! That forsaken desert in the middle of a peninsula. Why can't he hurry up and get to Winnie the Pooh at least? He'd get a break then- no wait, strike that. I don't want him to get to Pooh Bear, he'd spend a hundred days there if he could." Althea rants and rants and how bored she is since a certain Keyblade wielder can't go through the floors fast enough for her liking. Zexion on the other hand just reads his lexicon and ignores her...mostly since she seems to have gained a bit of a temper while stuck in the castle.

"And I can't even leave here and go back to Myde and Princess Leia. I can't do anything here. I feel so useless! King Mickey is busy helping Riku all the time and convincing him he's not a complete idiot. Sora's being a complete idiot with a train wreck memory. Repliku's not even old enough to go attack Sora and Riku. You're no fun at all since you're too busy making sure no one realizes you have your Heart back. Goofy's probably the smartest person in Sora's little group and even he's not realizing what's going on. Naminé's too busy being pushed around and messing with memories. Marluxia's being his flowery self and leaving sakura petals all over the place. Larxene's being a sadistic woman and carefully planning her attack on Sora later. Vexen's being a mothering hen to Repliku. Lexaeus is much too busy doing nothing but his little puzzles since you won't let him do anything. And me? I'm just stealing your bed, practicing my magick, and spying on everyone in the castle all day long!"

"If it makes you feel any better, the Replica will be decantered tomorrow morning. Vexen increased the power in his Ultra-Regen potion and will inject the Replica with it in another hour or so. He'll forcibly age 6 years in a few hours. Then we'll have Naminé implant some fighting techniques and such into his mind and he'll train for a few days before Vexen shows him to Marluxia. You can visit him tonight when most of the aging process has stopped. He'll physically be a little younger than his counterpart, but that's because we don't know when Riku was born." Zexion turns a page in his book.

"Late December. He's a Yule baby. He said it was before dawn. I remembered when I read that entry in my journal."

Zexion puts his lexicon down and stares at Althea in a confused manner. "Yule? The date some people consider to be the Witches' New Year? The day that magick is so plentiful that even normal people can sometimes see the life leaving the plants in preparation for Spring? The night when there was a a full moon lunar eclipse in Destiny Islands nearly 16 years ago? A day no pregnant woman should have left her house?"

"Well, if that's what your encyclopedia says, then yeah." She says pointing to his beloved set of books.

"No wonder he himself is so bad at magick! His clone wasn't made on such an auspicious night and so received the full blessings of being of the Fae race. The worlds make sense again! Thank Athena, Fudo, Dainichi-Nyorai, Shoten, and Hotei!"

Althea blinks twice. "I only know who Athena is, who are the rest?"

"Different gods of wisdom in Shinto and Buddhist belief. The small country I originally came from is Wutai and those were the gods worshiped."

Althea blinks again. _No way! Yuffie really is from Wutai! I wonder...maybe that's why the real Ansem adopted them? 'Cause they were royalty in their home and then suddenly ended up parent-less. Don't some royal families adopt royal children when their folks are dead?_ "Soo, if you don't mind me asking, according to my sources, Yuffie proclaims herself once or twice as a princess of Wutai. Were you guys really? Can I know how you two ended up in Radiant Garden? Please?"

_Sources, _pfft_! You mean your journal and everything you wrote down because you're such a fangirl. You are so lucky I'm over what happened. _Zexion facepalms and picks up his lexicon, flipping through the pages. "If you really want to know, you'll have to read what happened. I was still very young when it all happened and I knew I didn't want to forget it, so I wrote it all down. Then when I became a Nobody, I continued writing down pretty much everything that happened to me. I even kept a close watch on Yuffie and Kairi and wrote down what happened to them. Why else would I have so many volumes? Did you really think they were just a weapon?"

Althea nods dumbly. And Zexion shakes his head in amusement.

"_Heh_, think about it. Lea had frisbees. Axel has chakrams. Sora has the Keyblade. Roxas has the Keyblade. I had precious journals. Now I have unstoppable lexicons as a weapon. When Nobodies are created, the weapon they can summon is based on something with emotional ties to their Other. Anyway, try and finish sating your curiosity before 22 hundred hours, 10pm if you aren't a 24-hour clock person. Good day." He hands her the lexicon and portals away.

Althea grins to herself and gets comfortable on Zexion's bed. She cracks open the journal and closes it a moment later. _Wait a tic, I need something_. She thinks for a moment and then summons a bowl crunchy chocolate cereal without milk. Then she opens the book again and starts reading while skipping over the particularly emotional looking passages marked with water stains on the pages.

_Our nurse says the Wutai war has ended. Otou-san says that's a bad thing. Yuffie and I just don't know what to think. All we've ever known is the war. Our nurse says it's a good thing it finally ended, but that the country will never recover. I've been hearing Otou-san talk with his council about a place called Radiant Garden and visiting. I heard someone say something about an incentive. I'll have to look that up later. Apparently our country is going to need help to get back on it's feet._

_Today Otou-san told Yuffie and I that he was sending Yuffie to Radiant Garden. Apparently he's going to borrow money from that country and the king there wants insurance that he'll get the money back. So Otou-san decided to let that country have my little sister until he repays the other king._

_It's been a while since Yuffie was sent to Radiant Garden. I'm six and half now and I'm going to Radiant Garden too. Otou-san is dead. I found out the other king's name is Ansem and he's decided to adopt Yuffie and I. There were rebels within Wutai that wanted the war to happen again. They've been causing trouble ever since the war ended and King Ansem doesn't want to risk our lives by allowing us to stay in Wutai. I did some research on him. His only living relatives are his daughter Kairi and his mother. His wife died in childbirth and he's been a little nutty since then. He researches the Heart, Darkness, and a way to bring back someone from the dead. I have to admit, his research papers so far are very interesting and I won't mind being his son if he'll let me help with the research. Not to mention I'll finally see Yuffie again for more than a half hour._

_Forget what I said about Yuffie. I don't know who told her about ninja, but apparently she's been driving this Squall guy crazy because she's decided that she is the Great Ninja Yuffie, the White Flowering Princess of Wutai or something like that. And she's already thrown 5 shuriken at me and one of them hit me directly in my right eye! Where did she even get the shuriken? At least this Aerith girl was around at the time. She's a Healer-in-training and managed to stop the bleeding quickly. The Head Healer says I'll have trouble looking out of that eye from now on. Something about parts of the eye being shut down, like dead pixels. I will never forgive Yuffie._

_Strike that, I forgive her. She was honestly remorseful when our new father confronted her about it. She even decided to make herself my personal slave for two weeks in an effort to make up for it. And she gave me her last last slice of chocolate cheesecake. I may not have seen her for a while, but apparently she still holds that love for cheesecake and never lets anyone get any. And King Ansem, no, Father agreed to let me join in his research as long as I always had a chaperone. This man named Even was elected as my chaperone whenever Father can't be it. Even is involved in the research too._

_I met someone new today. He protected me from these blue creatures I found while wandering the town without a chaperone. Vexen didn't seem too angry though when he finally found me. Father on the other hand was livid. He took away my dessert for the day. I already miss the Sea-Salt ice cream._

_I haven't wrote in here for the past few months. A lot has happened since then and I've been busy. A mouse king came to visit a few times. Father canceled the research on the Heart after one of his new apprentices was getting too excited about it. I don't see why that would matter, but whatever Father says goes, I guess. When he told me, he promised I could research something else as much as I wanted and as long as he was allowed to research with me. I decided I wanted to try and bring back Wutai to it's former glory and so Father's helping with that. Yuffie and Kairi even join us whenever they're tired of picking flowers, throwing shuriken, and having tea parties. I kinda feel bad though. Xehanort, the last apprentice taken in before the research on the Heart and memories and resurrection ended, he asked me to distract Father so that he and a few others could continue the research. I felt bad for Xehanort, he couldn't remember anything and then when there's a chance to help him remember, Father closes the program. Xehanort thanked me and said I was a good boy for "being able to know when to do the right thing." He even promised that if the research proves to be everything they hoped, that they would try and revive my parents._

Althea's eyes widen in understanding. Back on the Earth she came from, everyone wondered why pictures of a child Zexion and King Ansem were leaked. It didn't make sense in the long run. Zexion became the third in command of the Organization according to any fan with access to every game. So the thought on everyone's mind was, "why would Zexion betray Ansem so when he was but a child?" Now the answer's clear to Althea and she has only criminal respect for Xehanort left. "Poor boy, he was deceived and given empty promises. I wonder why he continued to do as Xehanort said though. What am I saying? No I don't. If Xehanort deceived him once, he'd surely deceive him again and again until he finally got what he wanted. Ultimate power."

Althea puts down the lexicon and just stares at the ceiling for the remainder of the time until 10pm. Zexion warps back in, moments before she was about to leave, with a tray of food for two in hand. She bits her lip and accepts the tray from him, doing her best not to look him in the eye.

"He won't say it, but I think he wants you. He's been refusing to eat. His metabolic system still needs to catch up with his growth spurt. In the morning, Vexen and I will give him a check-up, but I'd like it if you do a simple check-up for him so that's he's used to the idea beforehand. Thanks to the two of you bonding so early on in his development, he trusts you more than anyone else and only listens to me because he knows I'm your companion. Oh, and try to get him to wear proper clothes. He's nearly 16 in terms of appearance after all, nearly a man. And answer as many questions of his as you can so that we won't have to. And for some reason, he always seems to be running a small fever whenever I see him." He says calmly, reaching onto his bed for the lexicon she left open.

"Alright, did you fix the cameras? Or are you just going to meditate and project a constant illusion?" She tries her best not the ask the question burning in her head.

He notes the page she left off on and closes the book, immediately banishing it to its proper space on his shelf. "Both. I figure it's better to be safe than sorry. You've worked so hard to make sure he has a personality of his own, it would be a shame if the final pieces weren't set before the Princess steps in." Zexion opens the portal for her since her hands are full and then sits at the head of his bed in lotus position.

Althea starts to step through when her curiosity gets the better of her. "Can I ask when you stopped believing him?" She looks at his face for any hint of a reaction.

He puts his hand to his face in a thinking pose. "I believe...Zexion stopped believing Xemnas when Roxas arrived. Ienzo on the other hand stopped believing Xehanort when he was a Wyvern Heartless for a year or two." He deliberately acknowledges both halves of himself. Satisfied with the answer, Althea steps through the portal and enters the laboratory where the Riku Replica is being kept.

The first sight that greets Althea is a grumbling Riku Replica glaring a small pile of clothes. He didn't look up when he heard the sound of a Corridor of Darkness because he figured it was just Vexen or Zexion or any other of the black-cloaked individuals in the castle trying to make him eat again or wear those itchy clothes he's staring at. So Althea grins as she gently sets down the tray, steps closer to him, and then clears her throat.

"Go away." His voice cracks a little and her grin widens, realizing that that means he's also being forced to quickly go through puberty.

"Do you really mean that?" She asks. He quickly rises to his feet at her voice and bellows. "NO! Stay!"

"Well, okay, if you say so, but you have to eat and put on some clothes." She pauses in her speech to gesture to the tray and the clothes pile. Noting to herself that he appears perfectly healthy to her. No visible bones. Not obviously overweight. His hair appearing to be glossy and thick. No abnormal markings on what skin she could see. No abnormal growths. Eyes are bright and alive. "Zexion says you refuse to do both." His cheeks suddenly redden a little as he tries to keep his expression calm.

Her face and eyebrows shift into an expression normally denoting slight realization and an "Is that so?" attitude. She chooses her next words carefully. "He also says you seem to run a little fever every now and then. I can see your cheeks have flushed, come here so I can make sure you aren't sick." The replica trudges over to her and she puts a hand on his forehead, then his cheek, then the back of the neck. ,Leaving her hand on the back of his neck, she then asks him a very direct question. "You like Zexion, don't you? Is it his looks? His voice? His attitude?"

The replica stumbles on thin air suddenly as his cheeks get redder. From the brief contact Althea had before he impossibly faltered, she knows his cheeks must have gotten hotter too. He struggles to make himself look dignified once more and stands up as straight as he can. Before he has a chance to defend himself, she pats him on the shoulder and talks while moving to sit beside the tray of food. "It's okay if you do, no shame in being homosexual. Then again you don't know what gay is, do you? So let me reiterate. No shame in liking someone. I'll answer every question you have that I'm able to answer. In return, you have to be honest and actually ask me questions. Now sit down, and chow down."

Althea's taken a few bites of rice by the time he finally sits down. They eat in silence until he finally gets the courage to say something. "Why do I get this weird warm feeling in my gut whenever he's around or I hear his name?"

"It's called a crush. People have crushes all the time. I myself have had a few. Most crushers as we'll call them don't act on their crushes in fear of the crushee, that's Zexion in your case, rejecting them. In a normal setting, it's even harder for the crushers that like people of their own gender. Except in certain cultures, like the culture your counterpart comes from." She takes a sip of tea.

"My counterpart? Does he like guys too?" Repliku asks, eager to know he's not the only guy in the castle that likes fellow guys.

"Well, I really don't know. There was a time when I thought he might be an appreciator of the male form, but not anymore. You see, it's my theory that you are everything he's not. So if you're gay, then I figure Riku's not. If you like purple, then he doesn't. If you hate yellow, then he likes yellow. If you love pickles, then he absolutely despise them. See what I mean?" She says knowing that Riku actually doesn't like purple and that he loathes pickles. And that Repliku likes purple.

"What's a pickle?" He asks and she points down to his plate at something he hasn't eaten yet. He uses his chopsticks to pick up the sliced vegetable and spits it out as soon as it touches his tongue. "_Bleck!_ That's the worst thing I've ever tasted in my short life!" He drowns his stomach in tea while Althea mutters about her theory going out the window. After sufficiently getting rid of the vinegar-esque taste in his mouth, he asks another question. "So how would a someone..."act" on their feelings for someone?"

Althea chews on a small leaf of peppermint to cleanse her breath while she ponders his question. "Well, it seems to me like I'll be explaining the whole birds and the bees. This is awkward."

"Birds and the bees?"

"Or the eel and the cave as the movie Memoirs of a Geisha calls it."

"Geisha? Eel? Cave? Movie?" Repliku asks in as confused a tone as possible. Althea sighs and spits out her peppermint leaf before beginning the explanation and even throwing in descriptions of what geisha, eels, caves, birds, bees, and movies are when not associated with anything.

The Riku Replica has an honest expression of childlike curiosity when she finishes talking and starts chewing on another peppermint leaf. She's inwardly glad that she didn't leave all of her herbs with Riku. She doesn't know what she would do without her beloved peppermint taste. "Althea, what type of people do you crush on?"

She sighs and tells herself the only reason she'll tell him is because he's so childlike and innocent right now. "Well, I adore light-colored hair. I like my guys able to fight. I like them confidant and clever. His eyes are a beautiful blue or green. I like being able to go toe to toe with him. He probably hates half the things I like. We argue every now and then, but we both know that if the other calls, we'll be right along to help. He has the strangest blood-family and extended family."

Repliku ponders to himself and for a split second, he's afraid she's crushing on him. But then he realized she knows his counterpart the way she described. "So, you're crushing on the guy that's not me? My counterpart?" He smirks evilly.

Althea takes the accusation in stride despite her warming cheeks. "No, no, no. That sounded nothing like Riku. Riku's a lot more arrogant and... we don't argue that often."

"You told me it's okay to have crushes, did you lie?" After a moment's thought about what she said about Riku's (and therefore, his) family, he adds, "Sis."

"It is perfectly alright to have crushes. But I don't have a crush on Riku. And why did you call me sis?"

"Better than calling you mom. You're the only girl I've ever known so you automatically get bumped to mom in my book. And if you aren't crushing on him, does that mean you love him? And want to share that star-shaped fruit you talked about with him?" His smirk grows wider, knowing he's won both parts of the conversation."

Althea's jaw drops at his attitude. Part of her is proud for succeeding in making sure he has his own personality. Another part happy that he dropped his embarrassment. And the last part of her is very unhappy that he's so blunt and straightforward. She shouldn't answering such a question from the clone of the subject of the question. It's weirdly paradoxical. "Why you-! I'm never talking to you again, Repliku."

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**Read and maybe review! I'm happy with just a page refreshed a couple times.**


	6. Gaining Allies

**AN:/ Hi everybody! I know, I know, I'm really late with this next installment. I'm very sorry! I blame bloody fudging college for taking up my time. So without further adieu, here's chapter 6! And remember, send all flames to your nearest "Movies Based On Books Suck!" bonfire. :)**

Following Twilit Paths, chapter 6: Gaining Allies

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Riku sighs and collapses after defeating the villain of this world. Well, the Riku in the scrying sphere, also known as a crystal ball, collapses. A 14 or 15 year old pale skinned, light blonde girl in a short white sundress lets her gaze wander to the crystal ball every now and then. She hears Riku murmur something and momentarily wishes Zexion was here to turn up the volume. She may be a witch, but she doesn't know much of anything besides her memory magick and how to change the "channel" on the crystal ball. She turns back to her sketches and slowly changes another of Sora's memories.

A few minutes later of changing memories and occasionally watching the scrying sphere, the channel changes to an extreme and bloated close-up of Zexion's face. "Naminé, Larxene and the Riku Replica are coming your way. Prepare your sketchbook for the Replica's memories. Be sure to awaken whatever memories are in his Heart Piece while you're at it and filter out anything unnecessary. That is all." Zexion's face then disappears as the channel switches back to who she's supposed to be watching, Sora and company.

_Trust Zexion to know when I'm slacking off. He's so sneaky sometimes that I wonder if he really believes all of this. Oh well, it's not my place._ Naminé then continues her picture of Sora slowly 'remembering' her.

_-_Minutes later.

Larxene throws the door open to Naminé's room. Naminé is startled despite the fair warning she got and drops her blue crayon. Repliku then ends up spread on her table and breaking a few crayons after Larxene easily tosses him at the memory witch with a smirk. "Your job now is to make him like the _real_ Riku."

"Larxene, what are you doing? Be careful with him! He was only decantered a few days ago!" Vexen 'fears' for his best Replica yet. He actually just doesn't want all of his hard work to go down the drain already. Most of his replicas perished that way, after all.

Repliku starts to sit up and tries not to break anymore crayons. He remembers being told that art was the life of the pale girl in white. And being told that despite her innocence, that girl was also quite powerful. He didn't want to get on the bad side of such a person. He yells at the black-clothed female behind him as he still gets off the table. "You crazy hag!"

Larxene smiles lightly at the compliment. "Hah! Great acting Vexy! But I think you've forgotten something, we want the fake Riku to fight Sora, yes? That brat may be dumb, but even he wouldn't believe this fake is Riku without some proof. Memory proof. Naminé, all the memories you're giving Sora, give them to the fake Riku too, understood?" She grins crazily in anticipation of the chaos to come. Naminé nods quickly and prays to herself that Larxene will leave even quicker.

Repliku's head turns to Larxene quicker than a dog's head does at the sound of it's master's call. "What? No, my memories are mine!" He turns to Naminé then and starts backing away. "Stay away!" Naminé quickly casts a silent numbing paralysis spell on the replica. He immediately falls backwards midstep and Vexen manages to catch him before he hurts himself further. Repliku tries to move but he can't tell if he is at all. You know the feeling if you're ever had to get a filling at the dentist or if you've ever been under anesthetic for one reason or another. The replica is helpless and can't feel a thing, even as Vexen leaves him on the ground and accidentally treads on his fingers.

Vexen and Larxene leave Repliku and Naminé alone. Naminé doesn't bother trying to get the poor clone a chair, there are none besides the one she uses. She settles herself in her chair before starting on his memories. The first thing she sees is very recent...

_He's still hasn't put on a shirt, but he at least has pants on now. He sits cross-legged across from a girl also sitting cross-legged. Their food trays only have empty plates, bowls, cups, and a plate of pickles left on them. The girl is fully clothed on the other hand. "Any other questions?" She asks._

_He pokes at his plate of pickles with his chopsticks. "Yeah, can you give me a name, Flower? Not a nickname like Repliku, that's too...uhm..."_

"_It reminds you too much that you're a clone?"_

"_Yeah"_

"_Hm, understandable. But why don't you name yourself? You have enough memories of language that I'm sure you can think of a better name than me. Besides, most people don't get to name themselves."_

"_Alright..." For a while, they sit there in silence. She takes the opportunity to give him a check-up. She goes to the table and picks up the stethoscope and blood pressure equipment. As she checks his heartbeat and blood pressure, she's never been happier that Maleficent ensured that she can do simple nurse duties. She remembers being told that sometimes, magickal-folk end up in worlds where the slightest bit of obvious magick done is a one-way ticket to the Underworld and that the best way to blend in, is to be a nurse or healer._

"_Hey, I thought of a name."_

"_Really? Let me hear it." She puts the health equipment back on the table._

"_It's Jirou. I think it means 'Second Son' or 'Second Dragon'. I can't quite remember." He's proud as he speaks and she grins at him._

Naminé gasps as she leaves the memory. Such strong emotions. And that girl! She can help me, Naminé thinks to herself as she cancels the spell on Repliku and begins the interrogation as he starts getting his mobility back. "Who is she?"

"She?" He cracks his neck and stretches while still backing away. He doesn't know what she's thinking.

"Yes, that girl in your memories, Althea. Who is she to you?"

"A friend." He's wary.

Naminé bites her lip. "Jirou," she uses the name he gave himself in the memory from a few days ago when he was decantered and given growth serum. "I've seen her before in Sora's memories. I knew immediately that she's not from here and that she's growing steadily stronger each hour. If she's here and you're under her protection, then we need to meet. Quickly! She's my only chance. Please, Jirou?"

He thinks about what she said before he remembers that Althea had originally said they could trust Naminé once she gets some sort of message. He give up the information the memory witch wants."Althea Gloxinia, she's supposedly really powerful when it comes to space and time magick. That's all you're getting out of this mouth."

"Thank you!" Naminé smiles gratefully. "But if I know anything about her from the memories of others, when I get a hold of her, she'll be glad that we've started without her. Do I have your permission to give you the memories needed for you to really act like Riku?"

Jirou nods and is put into a trance almost immediately. He sees Riku's life up to the point of separation in Hollow Bastion. He also sees the memories of Althea creating 'him', in a sense. He sees the whole process of the Dragon Pendant being created. He feels the explosions become less and less painful as she gets better at protective charms. He comes to the realization that who he is is not just a clone of Riku, but a clone of Althea based on Riku, with the memories of both of them. He has traits from both of them based on how strong their emotions were at any given time he, as a necklace, was worn by them. She made sure he wouldn't really bond with anyone but Riku. But that didn't stop him from stealing current memories from anyone that ever held him before he became a real boy. He is Riku. He is Althea. He is the Guy That's Not Ansem. He is Hurgy, Mog, and Blanc. He is Saruman, Yubaba, Jezzebel. He is Maleficent. He is Amani. He is Lea, Ienzo, Myde, and Zexion. A parasite that feeds on memories and magick. But also a perfect being lovingly created.

Naminé, on the outside of his mind, is satisfied with the distant memory activation spell she cast and turns to the crystal ball to change the channel and watch Althea. She couldn't really give Jirou the memories right now, just awaken the ones she was sure he already had trapped deep in his Heart and mind. When the scrying stone eventually focuses on Althea, Naminé is startled to see Zexion's room, and even more startled to see Zexion heartily laughing with Althea and pointing at a picture. Suddenly, he opens a portal and walks through with a still minorly laughing Althea. Both of them immediately appearing through a dark corridor that opened up in Naminé's room. "What?"

The still giddy brunette waves and grins at Naminé before going to check on Jirou. Zexion conjures three extra chairs and places a glamour around the room and on the cameras, making sure also that no one can enter the room until all business is done. Althea and Zexion put the zoned out replica in a chair and lean his head and arms on the table. "So I guess you got my message." The time witch said to the memory witch.

"Message? No."

"Oh, then how did you know to scry for me? I try my best to never be known."

"I was ordered to rearrange his memories and the first memory I saw was a recent one of you and Jirou. It was when he got his name. I searched for you because I know what you are, Princess." She points to Repliku.

"Really? Why search for a witch, Naminé?"

"I need your help. As you've probably heard from Zexion and seen for yourself, my position here is one of enslavement. As you are the only Grey Princess I know, I want your help. I know you are a time and space specialty witch. I know who you are to the Heartless and other Beings of Darkness. I know you've been working behind the scenes ever since you came to this universe. I know you made Zexion whole once more."

"How do you know that?" Zexion asks, wondering if he messed up.

"I can only see and change the memories of those with Hearts. The metaphysical type. When you passed me in the library, I saw the memory of the two of you meeting."

"Well, I was gonna help you anyways, but since you know, you can start helping us. You see, I know some of the things that will happen in the next year or two. Some things can't afford to change. Zexion still needs to disappear. You still need to change Sora's memories. Jirou still needs to fight Sora and Riku. Only Axel is allowed to officially be alive when everything's said and done. But Zexion doesn't need to die to disappear from the Organization's sight. You won't need to destroy Jirou's Heart to calm him down later on. Jirou won't need to die at Riku's hand, but it will still appear to be so thanks to Zexy's help. And Axel will be on our side in the end" Althea says.

"Naminé, do you think you can act as if nothing's changed?" Zexion says.

"Yes!" She nods and makes a serious face.

"And what do I do, Flower?" Repliku's attention comes back to the living as he raises his head. His expression is serious, but softens when his gaze meets Althea's. "I have so many memories I didn't know I had. Althea, your spells had other unseen effects. I'm not just Riku's clone, I just take much of myself from him."

"That's...interesting, remind me to ask you later exactly what you mean. Jirou, I need you to go along with the fake memories Sora has that Naminé's been giving him. Act as her bodyguard, pretend you love her. I know that'll be hard for you, but at least you won't always have to act like that." Althea says.

Naminé asks why and Jirou grimaces. "I'm gay. But I'll be able to act straight. I'm a clone made of the memories of 15 people. 11 had an inclination to men. 6 of the 15 constantly lie and act. I can pretend I'm straight for the remainder of our stay as long as I pretend you're a feminine male trans." Naminé has a curious expression.

"Ok, do your best. Pretend she's Marluxia if it helps." Althea says with a nod. After all, according to Tetsuya, Marluxia used to be a girl and then was changed last minute.

"Actually, Marluxia's straight." Zexion starts to say, thinking that Althea thinks Marluxia is gay thanks to his hair and power. "He just had a large family of sisters that loved giving him make-overs as he grew up. Larxene's the same, while we're on the subject. She grew up in a very violent and cheery family and lived next door to Marluxia. She's straight, but she thinks all of the Organization members are push-overs. Although she does have this strange fascination with Axel and appears to be best friends with Marluxia."

"Wow, really?" Althea is shocked. The fans were wrong about Marly-kun. "Anyway, Naminé, keep Jirou updated on what Sora's fake memories are. Do your best not to let anyone catch on. And Zexy, don't you have something to say to them? About family, hmm?" She lightly elbows him with a grin.

Zexy sighs and mutters that he doesn't want to be called that. "Yes, due to Riku adopting Kairi as his unofficial baby sister. You two are siblings. Use that sibling love to your advantage. Good luck—oww! Don't kick me!"

"Tell them then!"

" _sigh_ And also, I'm Kairi's actual legal brother. She was Princess of Radiant Garden. That makes you a princess as well as my sister Naminé. And Jirou, you're my brother too, though not legally a prince and more of a duke. Same with Riku."

Naminé smiles. "I know, as a memory witch I have access to the memories Kairi locked away. When I join back with her as is the fate of all Nobodies, I'll slowly awaken her lost memories."

"Alright, anything else anyone wants to say? No? Then I need to go see Riku, he's calling me." Althea waves and disappears before re-appearing in front of a bleeding Riku that's fighting off fake Heartless.

"Finally! I can't heal myself and fight this mob at the same time." Riku throws a weak Dark Fire at the bulk of the mob and runs to Ally. Ally casts a Curaga on Riku and hands him a Mega-Ether before pulling out _Night's_ _Edge_. Riku downs the curative quickly and casts a powerful Dark Firaga at the mob. "You're gonna actually fight with me?"

"I've been ignoring you for too long while I spied on the castle inhabitants. I feel like such a bad friend." Althea jokes as they start slashing at the fake Heartless.

"Really? Does that mean when these guys are gone, you'll stay and worship me?"

"Hah! Hilarious, maybe I should just leave you to your doom if you're gonna treat me like dirt." They grin at each other.

Hours later, in the last room of the world. "Let's stop here for the night." Althea says, dropping her bag on the floor. She stole her bag back ever since she decided to reorganize the contents. Without waiting for Riku to stop, she starts unpacking the sleeping bags and some canned vegetables and dried herbs. "I know you haven't been eating right, so I'll make some soup. Alright?"

She closes her eyes and concentrates her magick before casting a fire spell at part of the floor. A light blue fire shoots from her hand and attaches itself to a small part of the floor. Then she casts a small spell to keep the fire contained. Althea turns around to dig out a pot from her bag when she sees Riku's questioning face and laughs. "It's a no-burn fire spell I came up with while living in Vvardenfell with Sentinel, Mizu and a third Heartless you've yet to meet called Lea." She finds the pot and sets it on a stand in the fire. She starts cooking ramen noodles while adding some herbs and veggies. A plate of cooked beef chunks appears out of a mini dark portal while she does this but she doesn't notice at first.

"What the-?" Riku sees the plate appear.

"Hmm?" Althea spies the plate as well. "Oh good, he remembered. Remember Riku, I have friends in high places." She says while dropping the meat into the pot.

Riku glares at her. "You've been having fresh food while I had to settle for canned food?"

"What do you mean? Didn't you eat the—oh, wait, I remember now, the fake Heartless ate the fresh meats and fruits I always left for you. Sorry."

They peacefully eat until Riku feels a need to apologize for what Ansem did to her back in Hollow Bastion.

"Althea, I'm sorry about trying to kill you back in Maleficent's castle, I-"

"Was possessed by a guy calling himself Ansem. You had no control over yourself. When you finally got some control, your Heart was banished from your body and you technically were dead and a Heartless by the time you met Sora at the Door." She slurps her noodles nonchalantly.

" _blinks_ The game couldn't possibly have told you that. You said Sora was the main character."

"That's true, but I and every other fan had our theories."

"Right, well, after the Door was closed, I kinda seemed to fall asleep from weakness. Mickey said it was because of the pressure being put on my new body from the Darkness.. And there's been less pressure here in the castle so I've been getting stronger, but I was wondering if you have anything to minimize the pressure for when I leave the castle."

"Well, I don't have anything with me, but I can get you and King Mickey some of the cloaks the Organization wears. I found out where the laundry room is but I can't steal any of the cloaks until they stop checking the laundry room constantly. Apparently, their cloaks keep getting stolen. Strange, huh?"

"Yeah. But how do you know you'll find one to fit Mickey? And why would he need one?"

Althea winks. "_Heheh_, can't tell ya. That would be a spoiler. How about we make a deal? You don't ask me to explain spoilers, and I'll get to work on a spell to bring my games over here so you can play them and learn for yourself."

"Deal."

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**This space is to tell you the chapter is over. :)**


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